There are a variety of musical instruments which present the player with musical pitch actuators laid out in an array for easy access. By far the most common of these prior art instruments are those that utilize the traditional piano keyboard layout. The traditional piano keyboard layout presents in two rows, actuators for the 12 musical pitches of traditional western music. One row includes actuators for the 7 pitches of the diatonic scale, typically the C Major scale, consisting of the musical pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The second row includes actuators for the 5 pitches referred to as “accidentals” or “sharps and flats,” consisting of Gb, Ab, Bb, Db, and Eb, or as they are also sometimes called, depending on the context, F#, G#, A#, C#, and D#.
Further, with the traditional keyboard layout, the actuators for accidentals are interlaced between the actuators for the diatonic notes so that by moving laterally and alternating rows as needed, the musician can play all twelve pitches of traditional western music in sequence, or alternatively, play pitches belonging to the C Major scale with the actuators in one of the rows, or also alternatively play pitches among the accidentals with the actuators in the other row. The entire collection of 12 actuators in this arrangement is repeated laterally as needed in order to extend the range of the instrument over several octaves. One important feature of this arrangement is that it facilitates playing music written to exploit the natural or diatonic harmonies of the C Major scale. This is facilitated the segregation of the relevant actuators for the pitches of the C Major scale into one row, and relegating the actuators for the accidentals to a second row. Harmonies not available among the notes of the C Major scale can be played by “borrowing” actuators from the second row of accidentals, with some study being required to learn which actuators in the second row to use and when.
Other prior art alternative keyboard layouts present actuators in different arrangements for various benefits. For example, members of a class of keyboard layout designs sometimes called 6+6 keyboards, offer multiple rows of interlaced actuators segregated for “whole tone scales,” ie. Janko keyboard, and the Tri-Chromatic keyboard. There are two possible whole tone scales, and each includes 6 pitches. One whole tone scale includes the pitches C, D, E, F#, G#, and A#. The other whole tone scale includes the pitches C#, D#, F, G, A, and B. The 6+6 keyboard designs segregate the pitch actuators for the members of the two whole tone scales into two rows. The 6+6 arrangement has greater symmetry than the traditional piano layout. The 6+6 arrangement is intended to facilitate musical transposition by presenting similar or identical ergonomics in all positions on the keyboard.
Other prior art keyboard designs include various button accordion designs, the modern Jammer keyboard, the Axis keyboard, and others, which present rectilinear or hexagonal arrays of actuators, arranged so that the resulting proximity of actuators facilitates playing various musical intervals, ie, 3rds, 4ths and 5ths, and again offering ergonomic consistency as well as easy access to useful harmonic relationships.
The present invention is intended to facilitate easy access to a kind of harmony not as easily accessed via prior art actuator layout arrangements. These harmonies are used notably in jazz as well as other kinds of music, in which the three diminished chords present in the traditional 12 pitch scale are used to transition between other chords. With the use of the actuator arrangement of this invention, a musician can access these harmonies much more easily and with little or no study, compared to the years of study needed to do so with previous actuator layout arrangements.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a musical instrument with two or more classes of pitches where at least one class is a diminished chord extended over an arbitrary number of octaves, and another class is another chord extended over the same span of octaves, and whose pitches are interlaced with the pitches of the diminished chord of the first described class. Possible additional classes are chords similarly interlaced with other classes, with one class of any interlaced pair of classes being a diminished chord.
One embodiment of the present invention is where the classes of pitches are assigned to mechanical actuators arranged in groups by class, in which the activation of an actuator causes the production of a musical pitch within the class; where the actuators are in substantially parallel rows, in pitch ascending order; where the classes of pitches are assigned to actuators present on a touch sensitive display, the activation of each of which causes the production of a musical pitch within the class; where the actuators are in substantially parallel rows, in pitch ascending order; where additional controls are available for real time assignment of key, chord type, and translation of one or more classes of pitches; and where a computer algorithm selects members of the classes of pitches, which causes the production of a musical pitches.
Also the present invention relates to a musical instrument with two or more classes of pitches where at least one class is a diminished chord extended over an arbitrary number of octaves. More particularly the present invention relates to a musical instrument with two or more classes of pitches where at least one class is a diminished chord extended over an arbitrary number of octaves, and another class is another chord extended over the same span of octaves, the pitches of the second class being interlaced with the pitches of the first class.